The use of surgical cable and crimp assemblies to reduce bone fractures by joining bone fragments together until the bone heals is a well-known technique. Surgical procedures in and around the vicinity of a bone with closely neighboring nerves, arteries, muscles, ligaments, complicated anatomical structures, and other delicate areas represent a difficult and time consuming task for the surgeon. Preparing the cable and crimp assembly accurately is thus important to (1) minimize stress, trauma, risk, and injury to a patient, (2) lessen the difficulty of the procedure, and (3) allow the surgeon to perform the procedure in as little time as possible. The procedure involves looping cables around the fractured bone and tightening the cables with a tensioning tool. The cables are usually connected by a crimp, which is crushed by pliers. The crushed crimp then retains the desired tension on the cables. An example of such a device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,966,600.
To obtain a desired tension on a surgical cable looped around a bone, various known tensioning devices may be used. These devices allow the cable to be tensioned by applying a tensioning tool to one end of the cable while butting the tool against a crimp through which the cable had been threaded. The other end of the cable is typically factory crimped to another hole in the crimp, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,423,820; 6,077,268; and 6,387,099. The same effect is achieved by devices that use a wire with a beaded end, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,017,347. The bead catches on an end of the crimp and prevents the wire from sliding through and out of the crimp.
Also known is a device that provisionally holds the desired tension on a cable looped around a bone. Pluralities of this well-known device, known as an intermediate part, can be used at one per cable to hold and retain as many cables as needed looped and tensioned around a bone (using a tensioning tool), until the appropriate reduction of the bone fracture is achieved.
Other known tools can be used to pass the wire around the bone. Most require pulling from both ends of the cable, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,649,927 and 6,017,347. These types of tools typically require significant spreading or enlargement of the incision and can cause muscle trauma. Thus, they are not a satisfactory solution.
To solve this difficulty at least in part, a wire passer tool has been developed. This tool permits insertion of the cable and its looping around the bone with a minimal incision, thus reducing tissue injury.
Accordingly, with the development of this wire passer, a need exists for an improved cable and crimp system that permits tensioning and crimping of the cable using the same minimal incision used by the wire passer, thus avoiding the significant spreading or enlargement of the incision and muscle trauma known before, therefore reducing tissue damage.